Honiton
Honiton is located within East Devon local authority area. Historically it formed part of Axminster Hundred. It falls within Honiton Vol 1 Deanery for ecclesiastical purposes. The Deaneries are used to arrange the typescript Church Notes of B.F.Cresswell which are held in the Westcountry Studies Library. The population was 2377 in 1801 3271 in 1901 . Figures for other years are available on the local studies website. In the valuation of 1334 it was assessed at £02/16/08. The lay subsidy of 1524 valued the community at £21/12/04. It is recorded as a borough from 1217. It had parliamentary representation from 1640-1868. A turnpike was established in 1754. The community had a grammar school from 1640. A market is recorded from 14c.-1985.
You can look for other material on the community by using the place search on the main local studies database. Further historical information is also available on the Genuki website.
Maps: The image below is of the Honiton area on Donn's one inch to the mile survey of 1765.
On the County Series Ordnance Survey mapping the area is to be found on 1:2,500 sheet 70/4 Six inch (1:10560) sheet 70NE
The National Grid reference for the centre of the area is ST160005. On the post 1945 National Grid Ordnance Survey mapping the sheets are: 1:10,000 (six inch to a mile: sheet ST10SE,SY19NW/E, 1:25,000 mapping: sheet Explorer 030, Landranger (1:50,000) mapping: sheet 192. Geological sheet 326 also covers the area.
Illustrations: The image below is of Honiton as included in the Library's illustrations collection. Other images can be searched for on the local studies catalogue.
HONITON, by W.G.Hoskins, 1954
Extracted from the author's Devon with permission of the copyright holder.
HONITON is a cheerful little town, mostly of one long wide street, on the main London-Exeter road, which was its raison deter. The original settlement of" Huna's farm" may have been on the hillside to the S. of the town where the former parish church of St. Michael now stands. The valley is dotted with old farmsteads linked by narrow winding lanes, of which Coombhayes Farm (c. 1600) and Higher Blannicombe are worth seeing. Near the Sidbury road is Heathfield Farm ( 16th-cent.).
The manor came to the Earls of Devon, and William de Vernon, the 5th earl, founded a borough here between 1194 and 1217. Until 1846 Honiton was governed by a portreeve. In that year it was incorporated, and became a "mayor town." It was a parliamentary borough from 1640 to 1868, with a singularly unsavoury reputation.
Honiton is said to have been the first town in Devon in which serges were made, and there was a flourishing woollen industry here in the 17th-18th cents. It was also notable from Elizabethan times for the manufacture of a fine lace, which became especially famous under royal patronage in the 19th cent. Like most inland market towns in Devon, Honiton reached its highest population in the 1840s, but its subsequent decline was not as drastic as most, and it is a busy little place today.
Fires devastated the town in 1672, 1747, 1754 and 1765 (when 115 houses were burnt down), so that it presents the appearance to-day of a late 18th- early 19th-cent. town for the most part. The High Street is typical of a late Georgian coaching town, with a good deal of decent 18th-cent. building. The oldest house in the town is Marwood House, at the NE. end of the High Street, built in 1619 by John Marwood, physician. He was the second son of Thomas Marwood, physician to Queen Elizabeth, who enjoyed great fame as a doctor, having cured the Earl of Essex in 1592 when the best London doctors had failed to do so.
In the main street is Allhallows Chapel, used for nearly 300 years as a schoolroom. It has some 15th-cent. work, but was partly rebuilt in the 17th cent. and is now used as a local museum. The Congregational Chapel has its original 1774 building behind a later front. St. Paul's church was built 1835-8 in the Norman style by Charles Fowler.
The former parish church (St. Michael) stands on a steep hillside above the town. It is a distinguished building of late 15th-early 16th-cent. date, with large windows of clear glass, and something of the air of a cathedral. The chancel was probably rebuilt by John Takell (d. 1529) as is suggested by the inscription on two of the chancel piers. The interior was gutted by fire in 1911, when the splendid rood-screen perished, but a number of interesting memorials remain, including the tomb of Thomas Marwood the physician (d. 1617). There are fine views from the churchyard over the town to the Black- down Hills.
On the Exeter road, about 3/4 m. SW. of the town, is St. Margaret's Hospital, founded as a leper hospital at an unknown date and refounded and rebuilt c.1530 by Thomas Chard as an almshouse. Some work of this period remains.
HONITON FAIR, by Tricia Gerrish, 2004.
ORIGINAL CHARTER: 1247. Granted by Henry III to Guy de Rupe Forti, at the Feast of St Margaret (20th July) for 3 days.
1257. Another charter given by Henry IIII to Baldwin de Insula/Isabella de Fortibus for a fair on Monday,Tuesday and Wednesday of Whitsun week.
A GLOVE FAIR
Honiton Fair is said to date from about 1221, according to ancient Rolls. Its first known charter was given to Guy de Rupe Forti in 1247 for a three day fair around the feast of St Margaret. This replaced the earlier fair, which was probably at the feast of All Hallows. A second fair was added ten years later, celebrated at Whitsun, to Baldwin de Insula - or was it to Isabella de Fortibus? Opinions differ: Lysons Magna Britannia 1822 says it was to Baldwin, but Isabella was Lady of the Manor in her own right in 1257, and heiress to the de Redvers family. Honiton’s St Margaret’s Fair moved to the Wednesday following 19th July by 1890 (White's Devon Directory). In 1995 the opening ceremonies took place on Tuesday 25th July.
Sheep, cows and calves, and horses were all traded at Honiton's fair. A cattle market was held near the King's Arms and the horse fair near White Lion Inn. On Fair Day farmers from the surrounding area paid their yearly tradesmens' bills. Business was generally brisk, although in 1904 it was almost confined to one day, with very few sheep on offer, but plenty of cows and calves, and a number of horses for sale. Messrs. Hussey & Son conducted animal auctions for Honiton fair between the beginning of the 20th century and at least 1939.
By the 1920s a waning interest was reported by the Western Morning News in cattle auctions in the market. Just before the outbreak of World War II cattle, sheep and, in addition, pigs were on offer. Honiton's Horse Fair declined, due to mechanisation in farming, from its golden days when horses could be seen showing their paces from High Street to the turnpike near Sidmouth Road junction. 1969's fair still had a livestockmarket: trading around 200 cattle, 500 sheep plus 600 lambs, 500 pigs and 50/60 cows.
Honiton Fair was proclaimed at noon. A golden glove was hoisted on a garlanded pole. The Town Crier, in tricorn hat, red waistcoat, knee breeches and buckled shoes proclaimed the following:
Oyez, oyez. The glove is up. No man shall be arrested (for debt) until the glove is taken down. God save the Queen/King!
When the crowd had repeated this Proclamation three times, a bell was rung. The Civic Party moved on to the Angel Hotel (closed in 1989), where the glove was shown, and Hot Pennies were thrown down into the street. Next port of call was the King's Arms. Here the pole and glove were attached to its balcony and more Hot Pennies cascaded down. When this inn closed, in 1975, the Angel was used to display the symbol during Honiton's cattle fair. On Thursday, glove and pole were transferred to the White Lion, at the other end of town, for the horse fair. In the 1920s the procession was extended: going from the Angel to the Star and thence to the Three Tuns before arriving at the King's Arms to deposit glove and pole and to throw Hot Pennies.
Nobody can confirm how old Honiton's Hot Penny ceremony is - nor why it came into being. It has been claimed by a former Town Crier, whose family has long associations with Honiton, that it began in the 13th century, when gentry used to throw hot chestnuts to the serfs. Other historians and experts dispute both date and reason. A former curator of Allhallows Museum (the late John Yallop) confirmed that an 1870s picture of the ceremony exists, but there is no written record of Hot Pennies from Medieval or Tudor times.
A more commonplace explanation is that rich merchants in the Angel Hotel and other inns used to heat pennies deliberately at the fire and to throw them from windows for their amusement. Anyone who has attempted to collect Honiton's Hot Pennies without thick gloves or a piece of sacking will know how painful it would have been for poor children to pick them up. Scrambling for coins, cakes and apples is a documented part of Devon’s past however, used on many ceremonial occasions and Honiton Fair may merely have adapted this. At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries the custom almost fell into disuse, but was 'rescued' by a Mr Gillard, who made a generous contribution of newly-minted money, allowing it to continue.
Further ceremonies associated with Honiton Fair are mentioned during the 1930s. A press report states that a schoolboy was 'ducked' in The Leat, in Honiton's main street, by the Town Crier: 'in accordance with custom.' Ducking in a pool of water outside the Angel Hotel while penny scrambling took place is also reported at several 1930s fairs. In 1938 the Town Crier was locked up for debt in Market Hall at 11.55am on opening day, as part of ceremonial. Many local debtors believed that when the fair had been proclaimed and the glove posted they could safely leave their houses without fear of arrest. This was probably an enactment of this idea. He was duly released at noon, to play his vital part on crying and proclaiming the fair.
In 1828 there was a wife sale at Honiton Fair. Mrs Broom was sold by her husband. She was only 25 years of age, and had been married for a mere three years. Her sale was announced by the Town Crier and conducted by her husband. Bidding was brisk: starting at 2/6 (12 p) offered by a painter. It rose to 7/6 when a carpenter entered the auction, and the town's barber, hearing of the sale, abandoned his customers to raise the price by a full 8/0 in one go! Mrs Broom changed hands for £1.
The streets of Honiton must have buzzed on fair days. In past centuries troupes of dancing girls, roundabouts, boxing booths: even cages of lions were on hand for entertainment. One year a private from Honiton Militia camp challenged Jim Driscoll: later to become Feather-weight Champion of Britain, in the boxing ring. There were plenty of other fights. Once the words 'no man shall be arrested' had been proclaimed, old scores were paid off between local men. This despite the fact that the words referred only to debt. Farmers and their wives were everywhere, paying bills and enjoying hospitality provided by local tradesmen. It is said that a couple might breakfast, dine and have supper at their suppliers without parting with a penny (except to pay their bills).
In 1904, when trade was described as dwindling, the pleasure fair had become enormous. The High Street is reported full of shows and rides. So many roundabouts had booked spaces that Messrs. Hancock's Steam Horses could not find accommodation. 1928's pleasure fair took place in Streamer's Meadow, where it is reported two years later as being in decline - though business at the fair was good. A field to the South of town was used in the 1950s.
The handbell had to be dispensed with during World War II, due to wartime regulations, but Honiton Fair continued to be proclaimed, and Hot Pennies were still thrown - as they were on a very hot Fair Day in 1980. By now, Honiton's Hot Pennies ceremony had become a tourist and holiday attraction. Instead of allowing small children to scramble for pennies, others joined in. Punches and kicks were thrown, many faces were slapped, and police had to intervene in the ensuing chaos. Coins continue to be thrown from several public houses in Honiton as part of the fair’s opening ceremony. In 1997 they were dispensed from six, including the New Dolphin Inn, where the glove was hoisted by its landlord.
A revival of Town Criers in many parts of the South West has been reflected at recent fairs. Town Crier Day occupied the third day of fair. In 1997 the first ever children’s competition took place. Visiting Criers from many towns in the area try out their vocal cords in the streets of Honiton: an appropriate reminder for an old charter fair of days when the populace could not read, and relied on Criers to keep them informed of important events.
How sad to see this historic occasion billed for the last few years merely as Hot Pennies Day!
